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Detroit Free Press Business Writer

King, seen here last June, says membership will continue to increase: "I think we are going to have even more success with our organizing in gaming, in overall organizing and with automotive employment." / Carlos Osorio/Associated Press

UAW President Bob King says he believes he can continue the union's modest streak of increasing membership after many years of decline through vigorous organizing efforts.

If King is successful, it would mark the fourth consecutive year of membership growth.

The UAW's annual report with the Department of Labor, filed Thursday, shows that its membership climbed slightly in 2012, by about 1,800 members, to 382,513 members.

"The auto industry is turning around, the UAW is turning around, and we have been doing some good organizing," King told the Free Press on Friday. "In spite of the loss of public-sector employees and public-sector members, we are still growing."

The UAW's membership growth has been fueled by hiring by the Detroit Three as well as successful organizing drives with automotive suppliers and casino workers.

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler hired about 7,000 workers in 2012, said Kristin Dziczek, director of the labor group for the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.

Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, professor of labor at the University of Illinois, said the UAW's membership growth also is the result of the UAW's decision in 2007 to agree to a lower, second-tier wage for newly hired workers by the Detroit Three.

"That has allowed (automakers) to bring jobs back to this country that had been outsourced," said Cutcher-Gershenfeld.

The pace of UAW's membership growth has been held back by an economy that was still growing slowly in 2012 with unemployment that remained above 8% for most of the year as well as staffing cuts by governments and municipalities.

Across the country, membership at unions that represent public workers has been declined as financial pressures have forced states and municipalities to cut workers.

Membership at UAW Local 6000 -- the UAW's largest local that represents workers in Michigan -- has declined from 22,000 in 2010 to about 17,000 in 2012.

And even with its modest gains in recent years, the UAW's total membership only about a quarter of the more than 1.5 million members it had in 1979.

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The UAW also is attempting to increase its ranks in the face of fierce political pressure from Republican governors in a host of states, including Michigan.

Last year, Michigan adopted right-to-work legislation that allows workers to opt out of paying union dues at companies that have union representation.

Nationally, union membership fell to 11.3%, or about 14.4 million hourly and salaried workers in 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

In 1983, about 20.1% of all workers were represented by unions, and there were 17.7 million union workers.

The numbers in the UAW's year-end annual report also do not include new members at several automotive suppliers in the south and at a casino in Ohio that the UAW recently organized or some of the employment gains in the auto industry this year.

That's because the report shows the UAW's membership as of Dec. 31 and does not include workers who do not yet have a contract with their employer.

Actual UAW membership is now more than 400,000, King told the Free Press.

King said the UAW's membership will continue to increase in 2013, "Because I think we are going to have even more success with our organizing in gaming, in overall organizing and with automotive employment."

Over the past year, the UAW has won organizing victories at plants operated by Faurecia and Johnson Controls in Cottondale, Ala., as well as a school bus manufacturing plant in Tulsa, Okla., and an automotive seat supplier in Kentucky.

"The perception is wrong that you can't organize in the South," King said.

King, who was elected UAW president in 2010, vowed to organize a plant operated by a German or Asian automaker in the U.S. during his four-year tenure. So far, he has been unsuccessful.

However, the UAW has been making progress in discussions with Volkswagen to represent workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., and has been putting pressure on Nissan in Mississippi and Tennessee.

Also, the UAW's attention was divided in 2012 between presidential politics and organizing.

"We never lost our focus. Even during the period of time in which we were doing all of our political work, we did a lot of successful organizing," King said. "This year, our main focus is on organizing."